The Enterprise Report has learned that new action summer blockbuster "THE EXPENDABLES", opening this weekend across the country, used a pilot and aircraft operator who has a documented record of safety issue problems with the Federal Aviation Administration. The film prominently features an aircraft known as an "Albatross". The seaplane is the airplane of choice used by Stallone and his band of fictional mercenaries that the movie is based on.
The pilot, Lynn Hunt of Windsor, CA was previously highlighted in an exclusive investigative story broadcast on ABC News "Good Morning America" last year. The story exposed serious safety questions about the case of the "Red Bull Albatross" a seaplane used to promote and market the widely popular energy drink across the country and around the world.
In a recent publicity interview for the film published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Director/Producer Stallone described the Albatross airplane and how it made its way into the film and elaborated on how a particular flying stunt scene was shot.
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"The director happily reported that Mr. Statham performed one of the most dangerous -- he called it "unusual" -- stunts of the film, standing up in the nose of an airborne plane as it dove downward.
He described the aircraft as being recovered from the jungle, where it had been mounted on crates, rusted and "covered in bat and bird guano. They got it cleaned up and working-- barely," according to Mr. Stallone.
I asked Jason if he was willing to come out of a trap door and go out on the nose of the plane as it's coming down, and I said, 'I can't insure you. We have to do it behind the bond company's back.' He said, 'When do I start?' "
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Hunt, an American pilot, was hired to fly and operate the airplane used in the film. Production of the film and the action flying sequences took place in South America, mostly in Brazil, where the airplane was based.
